Think of these as chips with curb appeal. They’re a shoo-in for the little ones (and adults with a sweet tooth) because they’re tad sweet, have a deep garnet color, and are tons healthier than potato chips with lots of iron, fiber, and beta-carotene. Unlike the storebought vegetable chips, which tend to be fried, these are slow roasted until they’re shatteringly crisp. The only downfall? They make like ShrinkyDinks in the oven and end up almost half their original side. So, make lots. Trust me, you’ll thank me after.

Use a good quality mandoline (and the included guard) to make quick work of slicing the beets. If you don't have a mandoline or are hesitant to use one, you can carefully slice the beets using a very sharp knife. These naturally sweet chips are fabulous on their own but they'd be great served with your favorite dip or topped with a crumble of feta and a scattering of fresh chives for an easy hors d'oeuvres.

Ingredients

Instructions

Heat oven to 325°F and arrange racks in the upper and lower thirds. Using a pastry brush, coat two rimmed baking sheets with a thin layer of walnut oil; set aside.

Trim the ends of the beets, peel them, then use a mandoline or a very sharp knife to cut into paper thin (1/8-inch) disks. Drizzle with oil, season with salt, and toss to coat. Divide among two rimmed baking sheet and arrange in a single layer. Tip You may need to do this in batches.

Bake, rotating halfway through, until beets are light pink in color, edges are crisp, and they are beginning to dry out, about 30 minutes total. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool until crisp, about 5 minutes. Tip They will last up to 5 days when stored in an airtight container.

*The oil that I link to here is one that I use a lot in my kitchen. This is by no means a sponsored post and I was not compensated by La Tourangelle in anyway. If you can't find toasted walnut (or another nut oil), you can use olive oil instead.

These look tasty. My wife swore I could never get her to eat beets. WRONG!: http://www.chow.com/recipes/11402-beet-greens-and-feta-pasta Beet chips, however, may be solely my domain. I will say this is one arena where the organic beets are about 3 times the size of the non-organically grown so go with organic. Between this and the kale chips I should have my Sunday and Monday Night Football game treats covered.

http://www.aidamollenkamp.com Aida Mollenkamp

John: Glad your wife is a fan of that beet and feta pasta — I whip it up anytime I have beet greens lying around (like tonight). Good call on the organic beets as they do tend to be larger. Have a fun and tasty MNF!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1119286547 John O’Leary

Update: Made these with organic yellow beets (as to throw off potentially finicky eaters). Both the wife AND daughter loved these and they both would normally eat gravel than beets. Went through 3 large beets in less than 10 minutes.

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